#OccupyHarrisburg Protesters Disrupt Redistricting Meeting.

Protesters From The ...
... Occupy Harrisburg movement brought today's scheduled meeting of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission to its knees for more than 30 minutes this afternoon, with a vocal crowd demanding that the panel "throw open the doors" of the once-a-decade process.

The commission was set to convene its meeting around noon when a young man jumped to his feet and yelled "Mic Check! Mic Check!" and then began bellowing a list of demands as a k knot of protesters scattered through the room parroted back his words in the fashion of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Several Capitol police officers entered and left the packed hearing room in a corner of the North Office Building in the Capitol complex, but they made no attempt to remove the protesters or silence them.

One after the other, several protesters took up a repeating demand for "redress of government," as they reminded the panel that voters "pick the government" and not the other way round.

The protesters also repeatedly charged that the noontime session had shut out working people who might have wanted to attend but could not because they had to work.

More than once, the protesters invited the five-member panel to join them for a 7 p.m. "general assembly" to be held on the Capitol steps tonight.

While they were initially sympathetic to the concerns of protesters who said the maps were gerrymandered to protect incumbents, several in the audience who were waiting to testify began grumbling.

"We're on the docket to speak. Our process is being blocked," said Vickie Solberg, of Adams County, who wanted to talk to the commission about a redrawn 15th state Senate seat that takes Adams out of the district of state Sen. Richard Alloway and into the district of current Sen. Jeffrey Piccola of Dauphin County.

After more than 30 minutes of continuous chanting and shouting, the protesters left, saying that they going protect their encampment on Harrisburg's riverfront, which had been targeted for eviction by the city's police department.

"We want everyone's voice to be heard," said Hanni Craton, 21, of Harrisburg, who participated in the protest. "When you have a meeting like this, there is no way for everyone's voice to be heard."

Current Comments

Here's pics from the tent clearing. The chief of police made some really weird claims that were pretty Scott Walkerey. People not being from Harrisburg, claiming they aren't using knives when the one dude is holding a knife. Besides that most of the officers were great.